Space Station Welcomes Food and Supplies from Russian Ship

A robotic Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station Friday (June 16), delivering tons of fresh food and other supplies for the orbiting lab's crew.

The Progress 67 spacecraft linked up with the space station in a smooth docking at 7:37 a.m. EDT (1137 GMT) as both vehicles sailed 258 miles (415 kilometers) over the Philippine Sea.

"Progress completes as smooth a journey as you can imagine," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during live commentary. [The Space Station's Robotic Cargo Ship Fleet (Photo Guide)]

The Progress spacecraft is carrying more than 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of fresh food, fuel and other vital supplies for the space station's Expedition 52 crew. The craft parked itself at the aft end of the station's Russian-built Zvezda service module.

"The cargo vehicle is now in a gentle, but very firm embrace thanks to the station," cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia, who commands the station's Expedition 52 crew, radioed in Russian to flight controllers at Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

Progress 67 is the third robotic cargo ship to either arrive at or depart from the space station in recent weeks. On Sunday (June 11), an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up as planned to end its resupply mission. A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the space station on June 5 and is expected to parachute back to Earth on July 2.

Progress 67 launched to the station Wednesday (June 16) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sparking a deadly fire that killed one worker and injured another at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. A fragment of the Soyuz rocket that launched the cargo ship ignited grass on the Kazakh steppes, starting the blaze, according to a BBC News report.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.